"Winter's Sometime Smiles"

It's been a cold, wet, and even snowy winter. I've had to spend many more days and hours indoors than I would like, and so I turn to some of my favorite reading material to lighten the burden of such restrictions. Without doubt, one of the very best antidotes to cold outside is the warm enthusiasm of Elizabeth Lawrence, especially her Garden in Winter. This book has been an inspiration to me for many years, and it seems to be able to brighten my mood and teach me something every time I pick it up.
Here's the first few sentences:

"I never did care for fairweather gardeners. Standing behind glass doors, they look out at the cold ground and leafless branches, and exclaim' How beautiful this must be in spring!'
How beautiful it is now, I want to cry-"

I won't quote the whole book, although I am tempted. I urge you to find a copy and curl up in a cozy corner to taste some morsels of her wisdom. But I can echo her thoughts when it comes to some of her favorite plants, and maybe give you some pleasant dreams about your future garden.
There are incredibly fragrant plants performing in the winter here in the Southeast.
Chimonanthus praecox- Wintersweet- is an old fashioned garden plant that is a fragrant as any flower I know. It's habit is a little large and rangy for a manicured garden, but it's perfume from December to March makes it deserving of a spot nearby.


Hamamelis x intermedia 'Jelena' . Likewise, there are a large number of witchhazels that are both fragrant and astounding shrubs for the winter garden. They will take some room, but give you quite a show.

While many know the sweet smell of Daphne odora, few have enjoyed the white winter bloom of Eriobotrya japonica -Loquat- and it's evergreen, tropical, umbrella shape.


Or how about the sweet clove scented Prunus mume- Japanese Flowering Apricot- ?
The Southeast enjoys many many hollies in the landscape. The beauty of their berries in winter, their architectural habits, and their ability to attract birds to the garden make them gracious guests .
Ilex verticillata 'Winter Red'Ilex vomitoria 'Virginia Dare'







Ilex cornuta 'D'Or'

And of course we must include the color added by some of our best perennials and shrubs: Helleborus foetidus



Helleborus x 'Pink Lady'

Viburnum tinus buds all winter



Jasminum nudiflorum

Bind all these lovelies into a firm and colorful foundation of conifers,

and enjoy the garden every single winter day.

Thuja plicata 'Green Giant'

Chamaecyparis thyoides 'Ericoides'

Elizabeth Lawrence can teach southeastern gardeners to love the winter by showing them how to love the winter garden. For all of you who are tired of the cold, the gray, the wet; pick up one of her books, and warm up. As she quotes Coventry Patmore, a Victorian poet and author of a poem called

Winter :
" Sweeter yet than dream or song of Summer or Spring
are Winter's sometimes smiles".

Believe it.

Justify Yourself

Yesterday, Joe and I spent the day in Milledgeville, Ga, in the garden of our friend Barbie Colvin. It was a glorious day in the middle of an ugly weather week. We went down to help her take down a winged elm in order to make room for a new Japanese maple to join the other Japanese maples flourishing in the nearby beds.


I sometimes get resistance from friends or customers who have an unwanted tree or shrub. They can't seem to get past the idea that any living plant should be allowed to live out it's days undisturbed and without any obligation to reward it's owner with beauty, or shade, or some other benefit. I am not sure where this comes from. I have also found that logic does not touch it. But if I could bottle our experience yesterday, I believe I could use it as a cure for this mistaken notion.

We started with a fallen pine, cutting it up while Barbie hauled the logs back to the compost pile. Easy. Next! On to the Elm.


Before we got started we actually talked about the tree and it's transition. It had been one of the first large trees in the back yard when she and her husband had moved here. It had an interesting "two tiered" habit- very weepy lower branches and very upright higher ones. At one time they had thought they would limb it up to open that very dense growth low down. But that would take the most interesting part of the tree out, and still leave the part that was growing into some of the newer plantings they had installed over the years. No good solution to the problem. None , that is, but the chain saw.

Barbie had made her decision, and the tree was coming out. We worked on getting one of the two trunks down, and the very twiggy branches cut and hauled in many loads back to the compost pile. In between that and the second trunk, we enjoyed a fabulous soup and salad lunch while basking in the warm sun and blue sky.

Back to the second trunk, and another few hours of cutting, stacking and hauling. Finally by mid afternoon we were cleaning up the final twigs and admiring our work. Without a shadow of a doubt, the removal of this one tree had opened up the entire right side of the garden to sun, to a view, to a huge bed just begging for additions of color, texture and pizazz.

We could not believe how much better it looked, and could not stop saying so! It was the perfect combination of instant gratification and imagination directed towards the future . Our last task on this day that was just a "try out" of the days of spring to come was to "try out" the new maple in it's new spot , in anticipation of a newly cultivated patch of garden.

I remember several years ago I heard Helen Dillon speak at the Southeastern Flower Show. She was talking about the renovation of her garden in Ireland. I went to see pictures of pretty plants and suggestions for garden design, but I came away with quite a different lesson.
This charming, petite, refined woman went out into her garden every morning, stood in front of the planting and said "JUSTIFY YOURSELF!" If she could not judge that the existing planting at least equalled a potential newcomer, then it was out with the old and in with the new!

Very satisfying. And maybe a good lesson for all of us....
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